Gears Of War Fanon:Beginner's Guide/DMing
Welcome to the Gears Fanon Beginner's Guide to DMing! This guide will teach you how to properly run your own roleplay. Please keep in mind that all roleplay owners/DungeonMasters run their roleplays differently. This is a guide assumes you will roleplay a battle and it does not account for all contingencies. For the purpose of this guide, we will refer to "running/owning a roleplay" as "DMing", a reference to being a DungeonMaster in Dungeons & Dragons. This is simply because "DMing" is a much shorter, easier term. Guide written by User:Screennameless. Category:Beginner's Guides Constructing the Framework So you'd like to start a roleplay? Well, there's a fair bit of planning and knowledge required. Fortunately, creating a roleplay is the least difficult part of DMing. First, you need to title the roleplay and consider various sections you'll need. Before even that, you need to come up with a basic premise for the roleplay. Decide what will be the key event or location. For example, the original, basic idea behind my roleplay the Blackout of 2 AE was, "What would happen if they ran out of Imulsion in my Stranded town?". You also need to consider whether players will control characters or units for the battle. Title Basically all roleplays for games like Gears of War will be roleplays of specific battles. When you create the page, you should title it: :RP:Name of Battle Battle names can vary from things like the Battle of Kitalla Point, named for locations and towns like real-world battles are, to the Nitroneon Rebellion, which is a name more akin to that of a war. They might even refer to events that caused the battle, like the Blackout of 2 AE. You can try thinking of how battles were named in Gears (ex. Assault on Landown) for ideas. Abstract It's not a bad idea to include an abstract for your roleplay. An abstract is the quick description at the top of any article above the contents. The abstract can describe the plot of the roleplay, or you can describe your reason for creating the roleplay. The abstract is a good place to elaborate on the time period and the two sides in the battle and include links to any necessary background knowledge. Rules and Guidelines At this point, the rules don't need to be specific. It's common to post the basic rules when you first create a roleplay. However, any rules about adding characters and units should be outlined now. Sign-Ups You want players to join your RP, so you need a section titled "Participants" or "Sign-Ups". The general format for sign-up sections is a bulleted list, like so: :*Username Characters and Units Characters are individual "people" within the roleplay or story. Units are things like tanks, vehicles, platoons, etc., which can contain multiple characters within them or can be referred to without mentioning people at all. You should have already considered whether characters or units would be required for your roleplay. Regardless of which you picked, your players will need to add their own as they sign up. The general format for Character/Unit sections is to sort the different forces (COG, Stranded, Locust, etc., which can be further subdivided into things like Attack Force, Relief Force, Defending Line, Ground Units, Air Units, etc.) and then show the format for adding characters/units: : Units : COG : Ground Units :;Username :*Character/Unit Name You'll probably want to include a maximum number of characters/units any person can have. Invitation-Only If you want your roleplay to be invitation-only, say so in clear, bold text at the top of the roleplay page. Establish whether people can ask for invitations. Filling in the Blanks At this stage, you've done all you can to the page and have to wait for players to join. While you're waiting, you should begin to flesh out the roleplay. Any more detailed rules or guidelines should be added now. You should also return to the basic premise you considered for the roleplay; we'll continue to use my roleplay as an example. Your premise was probably something like, "What would happen if they ran out of Imulsion in my Stranded town?" Start to consider potential results of that question, things that would need to happen. In this case, we'd come up with things like: *Kryll would flood the town. *Emergency lights would need to be turned on. *Somebody would try to fix the generator. *Locust might use the situation as a tactical advantage. *Stranded civilians would need to be evacuated to well-lit areas. These responses are what you will use to decide the goals of the opposing forces and how the battle will play out. Maps It's not a bad idea to create a map for the roleplay. It's a good way to keep track of where people are, especially if they are in a town and buildings are involved. If you don't have a map, soon you have eight buildings all next to each other at the same time, and that totally defies laws of physics and stuff. If your battle takes place in a field or valley or other generic place with only one or two defining features, a map probably isn't necessary. Introduction A roleplay only officially starts when the author posts a first post or an introduction. While you're waiting for players to join, prepare your introduction using the basic premise and the potential results of the situation it outlines. If you are including your own characters in your roleplay, your introduction will probably include and explain their roles. It should also establish the general situation and what the other players will have to deal with and react to. Basically, if you're having a platoon of tanks duke it out with some Brumaks, you might describe the battlefield they meet on, how they look, who has the tactical advantage, and how your particular squad (who happens to be a tank crew) is feeling as a Brumak roars and charges at them. You would prepare this as you would a rough draft for a fanfiction chapter. Start the Roleplay! Everyone's joined up. Write the final draft of your introduction and post it! From here on, the Beginner's Guide to Roleplaying should do the trick. Surprise Situations When DMing, you might include what is called a "surprise situation" or, to those who have played games such as Final Fantasy, a "random encounter". On rare occasions they may be referred to as "heads up situations". Taking a role more akin to a DungeonMaster (DM) in Dungeons & Dragons would, you spring new issues on the players without warning. Surprise situations are always directed at a specific player or players and are usually one or two sentence prompts: :''Username: The lights in your area flicker and die. Kryll swoop down from over the rooftops!'' Or a less negative one: :''Username: You see a dog in the distance. He's barking incessantly at the door of a house.'' When one of these prompts is directed at a player, they must immediately drop or wrap up what they were previously doing to respond to the new situation. This can be helpful when a person seems stuck on what to do or when the you need the action to move in a particular direction. Examples of Great Roleplays *The Nitroneon Rebellion at Halo Fanon - a great example of an invitation-only roleplay. See Also *Gears of War Fanon:Beginner's Guide/Roleplaying